Recovering and Progress
by LadyChatOfMisfortune
Summary: Lila had entered Marinette’s life just to make it miserable. Though things might start getting better for Marinette; starting with exposing Lila’s lies... (MariChat)
1. Rivals

**This is my first fanfic, so there may be a few mistakes but I hope you enjoy it overall! It may be a bit short but depending on how much people read this I will make longer chapters. I am completely content with people commenting on chapter ideas so feel free to send them!**

Marinette watched Alya, Nino and Adrien all in hysterics. She watched them with a sad smile, _'At least your happy'_. The squad had become distant, therefore leaving Marinette on her own. Though it didn't happen all by itself. It happened because of someone. An intruder.

She had tanned skin, olive green eyes and chestnut brown hair. _'A beauty, but her deceitful nature is what's wrong!' _Marinette thought. It was true. That girl was a horrible mess and all that came out of her mouth was pure lies. She had everyone wrapped around her finger; everyone except Marinette.

You see, Marinette had growing suspicions since Day 1 or the day that she had met this person, and once it was confirmed that she was lying, Marinette had pushed her away and had never trusted her to become a friend. Adrien had knew about it too and had told her to take the "high road". Instead of listening to him she had tried to reveal the lies and secrets that said girl had kept, but failed miserably.

Now they were both at war, and with a promise- a threaten- that she was going to turn all Marinette's friends against her and have her end up all alone. They were competitors, where each other were opposing to the other. They were rivals.

The other said rival goes by the name of,

_Lila Rossi. _


	2. Regrets

**I just checked my first chapter and I literally freaked out!!!!! I have 4 favs and 10 follows and I know that it doesn't seem like much but IT'S LITERALLY FREAKING ME OUT!!! Anyways, I decided to make this chapter longer as I had purr-omised. (pun intended!)**

Marinette was walking down the stairs of François Dupont, clutching her sketchbook. Nothing bad had happened today and it was the end of school so she thought it was a nice day to go relax; she could go through the latest design that she had drawn.

Once she got home she greeted her parents. She grabbed a croissant and a few cookies for Tikki and rushed to her bedroom. Tikki flew out and thanked Marinette for the cookies.

"Tikki, I'm just going to the balcony to do some sketching, okay?" Marinette asked,

"Yeah that's fine. I'll just stay here enjoying these delicious cookies!" replied Tikki.

Marinette giggled and put the croissant in her mouth. After grabbing her sketchbook and pencils, she climbed through the hatch to her balcony and sat down in her comfy chair. She opened up to her new design and starting adding details to the hem of the skirt. After a while, she had gotten tired and drifted into what she though was a small nap.

~M~I~R~A~C~U~L~O~U~S~

Chat Noir waited on top of the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug and him were supposed to have patrol! She was usually late but she never stood him up! _'Ladybug's probably not gonna show up. I'll just patrol by myself.' _

He lowered himself down to the ground, using his staff and roamed around the streets of Paris. This was one of the things he really enjoyed and where he actually feels freedom.

He then jumped onto a rooftop and decided to stay there for a while. He looked around at the scenery and spotted something. He got closer and realised it wasn't _something, _it was someone.

He noticed that it was his blue-haired friend, Marinette. He smiled at her sleeping face and how she seemed so peaceful: but he also looked at her with longing in his eyes. All he ever wanted was for everything to be back to normal; to be able to talk to her, to be the best friends they once were. Just when he was about to turn and carry on with patrol, he got hit by an idea.

He may not be able to talk to her as Adrien, but who said he was restricted from talking to her as Chat Noir! His mood was shortly lifted again and he watched her. **(Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound creepy!)** _'Marinette, look out, because you're about to get a new best friend!'_

He decided to vault onto her balcony railing, which he instantly regretted as she woke up with a startled lurch.

"Chat Noir?" asked Marinette.

"Sorry- I didn't mean to intrude!" he replied.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was just passing by, and I was in the middle of my solo patrol-

_'__Shoot! I completely forgot about that!' Marinette winced as she remembered,_

-and I was distracted by this beautiful princess who seemed to be having her beauty sleep" he smirked.

Marinette rolled her eyes _'Still the same flirty Chat, I see.' _Looking up at him an idea hit her. Smirking, she walked forwards painstakingly slow, looking at Chat's expression who was staring at her mouth agape, she then stood up on her tiptoes and leaned forward until their noses were touching. She then watched as Chat's face flushed a bright red.

"Was I really _that _attractive?" she teased.

Chat was speechless. In fact, he was _beyond _speechless. He never knew that Marinette could be this bold and daring. Instead of looking like an idiot he tried to talk to Marinette in a calm and well-mannered way.

key word - tried

"Umm... yeah... were distractive you, dropped attractive I by check to you on... urghhh" after saying that, and hearing Marinette giggle at his inability to speak coherent words, he was ready to jump off of her balcony and end his misery. Instead he slowly started crouching down and tucking himself into a human-cat ball and by then he was sure that he looked like a complete and utter fool.

On the other hand, Marinette was now clutching her sides, as her whole body shook with laughter. Chat looked up at her and pouted, to which her amusement slowly died away and she instead looked at him and offered her hand:

"Don't worry I won't embarrass you any further." said Marinette with an encouraging smile.

Something struck inside Chat and looking at her made him feel giddy. That only happened when he was around Ladybug. Confusion started bubbling inside him but he chose to ignore it and took her hand. He mumbled a small 'thanks' without looking directly at her.

"No problem!" Marinette smiled.

Chat noticed that the sky was darkening, which indicated the end of patrol and his talk with Marinette. He plucked up the remaining courage he had left in him to say a proper farewell.

"Well, as much as this cat would love to stay and _chat, _I must get going. Until next time princess!" he winked, gave his two-fingered salute and leaped away into the distance. Marinette watched as his figure got smaller until it was a tiny dot that couldn't be seen.

~M~I~R~A~C~U~L~O~U~S~  


Marinette was left to ponder on what had just happened. Afterwards, she had come to the conclusion that she had spent enough time outside and that she should get warmed up, as she was starting to get a big chilly.

Tikki immediately greeted her when she clambered onto her bed.**(I'm pretty sure that the door to her balcony is right above her bed. Sorry if I was wrong!) **Marinette lay on her bed thinking AND criticising her actions back there. She knew that she owes him a bigger apology. She'll just do that the next time she sees him. After hearing her mum call her down for dinner, she agrees that she'll focus on this later.

Though she doesn't know what sticky situation she'll be in when she sees him...

**By the way, I know I haven't mentioned much about Lila in this chapter, I've got something planned for her in the next. I'll try to update as soon as possible. Bye!!**


	3. Revelations

Marinette woke up, 6:09am - she was early getting up for once. Something told her that today was going to be a good day. Once she had gotten ready, she went downstairs to eat breakfast and popped a few macaroons in her purse for Tikki.

"Good morning dear, you're up early!" exclaimed Sabine, Marinette's mother. Soon after, her father had entered the room as well to inform Sabine about one of the big orders that was asked to be done by the weekend. After Marinette had finished eating, she rushed to hug both her parents.

"Bye Maman, bye Papa!"

Shutting the door behind her, she ran to school.

~M~I~R~A~C~U~L~O~U~S~

Adrien was staring at the door intensely. He was hoping that Marinette will arrive after the bell to avoid the drama, at least for a few hours. Though his heart sunk when he saw Marinette walking in through the door. He checked the clock on the school wall **(I don't know when school starts in Paris so just go with this for now.) **8:04 - great, just great. Lessons don't start until 8:15! Adrien felt helpless; he knew he couldn't do anything to help and all he could do is sit in his seat and watch the 'show' that was about to start.

Just as Marinette was about to go to her desk, Lila stopped her.

"Well, well, if it isn't the disrespectful, attention-seeking Marinette." sneered Lila.

Marinette rolled her eyes: she really had no time for this. The bad thing is, the whole class had joined Lila which meant that no one was by her side, she didn't know about Adrien: so she decided to go strong and face Lila, even though it pained her to see Alya's face amongst the crowd behind her.

"What is it Lila?" she asked.

"Oh, so now we're playing innocent are we?!" Lila exclaimed.

"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about, so just tell me what's wrong" said Marinette, exasperated.

"You trying to seduce one of Paris' superheroes is whats wrong!" Alya butted in.

"I did- WHAT!!" Marinette yelled.

"Lila was strolling by the area and she happened to pass your house. Thankfully she took a picture of this and showed us this! What do you think Ladybug would think of you after hearing that you were trying to seduce or maybe even harrass her partner!" Alya screamed back.

_'I know that she'll be incredibly furious for making false accusations about her!!' _thought a very offended Marinette. She hated this. Alya and Lila picking on her was really getting in her nerves: not to say that it was really upsetting to find that her longest friendship had turned into something horrible.

"Which is exactly why I'M posting this on the LadyBlog!" announced Alya smugly.

Marinette was on the verge of tears. She was about to make a dash out of the classroom when...

"ENOUGH!" a voice shouted.

Marinette turned to find Adrien standing up in his chair, face red and fists clenched. Everyone slowly backed away in fear after noticing that he was moving towards them.

"Ok. This. Is. ENOUGH! I've had it. All of you ganging up on Marinette and making her feel small. I know I've never included myself in these conversations but there is a reason behind it. What do you guys know about the relationship between Chat Noir and Marinette? You trust the word of a person who had maybe witnessed something at the wrong time! You can't just assume things. You know what?! I'm done. And I think Marinette is too!" Adrien grabbed Marinette by the arm and walked to the door of the classroom.

He turned his head to look at his classmates again "When you guys see Mme. Bustier, tell her that Marinette was feeling ill and Adrien has gone to accompany her home, _or else!_" he growled as he dragged a flustered looking Marinette out of the classroom and slammed the door.

"What. Just. _Happened_?!"

Afterwards, there was an awkward silence between Marinette and Adrien.

"Ummm... Adrien you didn't have to do that you know. I could have dealt with it mys-"

"NO! I'm tired of you always facing Lila with no one by your side. Now I'm here to change that! You don't have to pretend anymore." said Adrien.

Marinette smiled. If had been weeks since they had shared a conversation. Heck, it's the first time in months that he had ever said anything to her. Adrien opened the door to the bakery, and being the gentlemen he always was, he offered Marinette to go first. Marinette giggled at his small bow and had curtsied before heading inside.

Marinette's mother and father shared a look between amused and confused before smiling at the two children. "Do you kids want any snacks?" Tom asked.

"I'll have a croissant and a few cookies!" said Marinette.

"What about you son?" he then went over and patted Adrien on the back.

"Umm.. I'll have a croissant and..." Adrien looked unsure.

"Just tell us! We won't charge you. It's always a friends and family discount so you get it free!" said Sabine.

"Umm... I know this may seem a big weird but... do you have any Camembert?" asked Adrien hopefully.

"We used the last of the camembert on the camembert tarts. Would you like one of those instead?" asked Tom.

"Yes, yeah that would be fine. Can you give me a couple?" by this point, Adrien face was a bright red and he was sure that they thought he had some sort of Camembert addiction.

"There's no need to be shy! Here you go. Now you two go along upstairs. Sabine will be coming after a few hours to make lunch. Will you be staying Adrien?" Tom asked.

"Sure, why not? I'll stay for lunch and then I could head to school." he shrugged.

"Ok enough talking, come on Adrien!" Marinette came and grabbed Adriens hand, being careful that he doesn't drop the food in his hand. Once Marinette and Adrien were in the safety of her bedroom, she let go of his hand. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Thanks. For all that you did for me back there." said Marinette.

"No problem. Only helping out a friend in need."he replied, trying to sneakily hand in a few of those camembert tarts to Plagg.

"But why did you do it?" she asked.

"What?" Adrien was beyond confused, wasn't he allowed to help a friend out?

"I mean, why did you defend me now, of all times. You hadn't spoken to me for months. Why?"

Adrien sighed. He really didn't want to talk about it but she deserved to know.

"I'm really sorry about that. It was all because of my father. He had threatened me that he would take me out of school if I were to hang out with you-

A gasp from Marinette was heard.

-because apparently you were a 'bad influence'. He then made it even worse by saying that I had to hang out with Lila, who was making sure that I didn't speak to you, and me being the selfish person that I am: for my desire to stay in school, I left you alone for months, which I am truly sorry for!" he exclaimed.

"No, don't ever discourage yourself like that! You're not a selfish person and you know that! Besides, what are you going to do now! You literally just defended me IN FRONT of Lila. I don't want my silly behavior with Chat to be a result of you getting in trouble with him!" Marinette cried out.

"I'm gonna face him Marinette. Today. He already controls half my life: telling me what to eat, what I wear, what's in my schedule, how I behave but he is NOT going to choose who I hang out with and I just may have the perfect reason why Lila is the bad influence... so you don't have to worry Marinette!" Adrien flashed her his brightest smile which immediately cheered her up.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Marinette then decided to tell Adrien something.

"Umm... Adrien, can I talk to you about something? It's about Lila." Marinette looked very uneasy so Adrien knew that this was a serious matter.

"Sure Marinette, what's wrong?"

"Ok.. there's no easy way to say this but this might take a while so I suggest you take a seat." Marinette then led him to the chair on her desk while she sat next to him.

"You see, I knew Lila looked suspicious ever since her first visit to our school. I just so happened to be in the park at the time Ladybug exposed her for lying about being a superhero and her friend so I heard everything. I never liked her from then on and you should have saw how happy I was when she had left. A few months later, I realised she was back, you know after the seating plan changed? I knew that she was lying about her tinnitus and when I was sent to the back I was extremely upset. To make matters worse, something happened at lunch when you weren't here. Lila has everyone's attention around her just because of her so-called 'sprained wrist' and I lost it! So when I tried to expose her I failed. Then I stormed off to the toilets to try and calm down, when Lila suddenly appeared. She tried approaching me like a normal person, all sweet but then I told her I knew that she was lying and she turned into this evil, twisted version. She told me that she'll make sure that I have no friends left and that I'll get no where near you."

Adrien was listening quietly at first, but now his jaw was literally touching the floor: but one question was bugging him.

"Why would Lila not want you anywhere near me?" he asked.

Marinette's smiles. "It's because I had a helpless crush on you, which is why I acted so weird and flustered around you, but don't worry, those feelings are long gone and we can focus on being friends, ok?

Adrien felt butterflies in his stomach that had just appeared slowly being crushed. He doesn't know why that happened. It was close to the sensation he felt as Chat when he was with Marinette the day before, except that the butterflies weren't in a pulp. He chose to ignore it, again.

"Yeah sure, but are you feeling ok, emotionally?" he asked.

"To be honest with you I'm not. As you opened up to me about your father, I'll open up to you about how I felt. When you said that 'making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy' have you ever thought about what kind of stuff the bad guy does to the good guy? You may not know of this but Lila has hurt me- to the point where I was vulnerable to an Akuma." She blabbered on for a while about all the stuff Lila has done to her.

She turned to look at Adrien and saw him crying. Her expression imediately softened.

"Aww, Adrien don't cry! Now that I have you I know that everything will be alright from now." she hugged him.

He hugged her back "Always tell me if Lila is bothering you ok? I'm really sorry for saying that, I never knew that she had hurt you so much. No more keeping secrets from each other."

Marinette pulled away from the hug and wiped Adrien's teary eyes. 

"I wont keep any more secrets, I promise." she then hugged him again and they stayed in each other's embrace for a while.

After a while they both headed downstairs after hearing Marinette's mother telling them that lunch was ready.


	4. MESSAGE

Sorry guys! I haven't uploaded in about a month and so much has happened since my last chapter! I hope everyone is doing well, especially with the Coronavirus outbreak. I literally just couldn't post because I couldn't be bothered to but now I have started to carry on working with my 4th chapter for this story. We have all experienced loss during this time and hopefully we can outgrow this phase. Hopefully in a few years time, the Coronavirus would just be a distant memory where we remember being close with our families and not having to do much work (except from the people who have to do online schooling like me or the adults that have to do online work).

Anyways I just hope that everyone stays safe and I'll post a new chapter soon!


End file.
